Yes, still alive

I'm sorry, I've been a seriously delinquent blogger, I haven't touched this space for ages! I don't even have any good excuses, such as being too busy travelling to exciting places, or making a whole new person. Ugh. I think the problem is that my knitting doesn't excite me so much anymore, so I'm not motivated to take pictures of it, and if I don't take pictures, then I also don't update Ravelry until much later, and I don't blog about it either. It's not that I don't enjoy the knitting, it's more that I'm not in awe of the finished objects anymore because it's very much been there, done that. I really don't feel the need to discuss every single pair of toe-up stockinette socks I knit, you know?

In any case, until I figure out what to do about that, here's a roundup of some of the things I've knit over the past little while:

Green Gable (on Ravelry)

Pile-able Pups (on Ravelry)

Poppy (on Ravelry)

(Yay, the sleeves more or less match! As do both sides of the front! I don't think I'll be knitting another sweater out of Silk Garden anytime soon, worrying about getting the matching to work took too much out of me)

Citron (on Ravelry)

Katrina Rib (on Ravelry)

I'm happy that I'm now able to knit sweaters for myself that more or less fit. I don't think that I have a sweater FO that I'm 100% delighted with, but everyone who knows me well will probably say that that's pretty much an impossible endeavour. It's enough that I'm at least willing to wear them out in public! My next sweater goal is to tackle a fingering-weight sweater, maybe a Featherweight Cardigan?

And now I'll probably have to elapse back into blog silence, because I have to get a start on my Christmas knitting. Who knows though, maybe I'll manage to sneak a little something in there for myself, too.

More Cracksilk Haze

Not too long ago, I bought some yarn. And some beads.



Kidsilk Haze is rapidly becoming one of my favourite yarns (that, plus Silk Garden, plus Koigu KPPPM, plus Calmer. Hi, I'm a yarn snob). It's airy and light, yet oh-so-warm during those frigid winter months. I'm using this yarn to knit Trinket (Rav link), a scarf that I've coveted ever since the pattern came out years and years ago.



I'm into the second ball of yarn now (there are 3), and the scarf is around 3 feet long. I think I want the main part of the scarf to be at least 5 or 6 feet long, and then there's the knitted ruffle where all the hundreds of beads are attached (600 or so? I hope I have enough beads. Maybe I should buy another tube just in case. Or use fewer beads. 600 seems like an awful lot to hang on the end of such a light scarf).

Anyway, it will probably be several months before this one gets finished (by this fall/winter though, definitely!). It's almost June, which means that it's probably about time to start thinking about Christmas presents. =)

Manly enough?

I have a deep and abiding love for Noro Silk Garden. In fact, a significant portion of my stash (almost a quarter of it) consists of Silk Garden. I usually only buy it when it's on sale or from eBay, since my budget wouldn't be able to handle buying much of it at full price. Over the past couple of years, I've managed to acquire a few skeins in darker colourways, colourways that fall far outside my usual palette of bright and pretty colours.



Not that I don't like the darker colours, they're just not the first things I'd reach for.



So what to do with these orphan non-girly skeins? How about a manly Noro Striped Scarf?



The only man in my life worth knitting for at present is of course my dad, so I'm thinking that this might make a nice Christmas present for him. The thing is, there are a couple of less-manly sections in the scarf, such as the one right here with the pink and green.



Looking at the scarf as a whole, I think it's plenty manly enough, and it's received positive reviews from at least one man (my coworker who was in the car with me when I finished the scarf on the way home from a conference). I'm posting these photos mostly for the benefit of my mom and sister, who get final say over whether the scarf can be gifted. What do you think?



(This scarf used 2 skeins of colourway 86, 1 skein of 82, and 1 skein of 88)

Decided what to make

Well, I decided what to make to go with the baby sweater. I ended up settling on a hat. I took the pattern from Last Minute Knitted Gifts, so it was a really super fast knit.

The photo is quite terrible - my apologies. Again, taking photos in the middle of the night proves to be a bad idea. I made the i-cord a bit too long. Hopefully it turns out okay.

I also blocked the cotton scarf I finished.

The cotton was soft to start with, but somehow feels even softer after blocking. Super nice stuff.

Just made it

With the closing ceremonies set for about 7 hours from now, I managed to get that leaf patterned scarf done. There was a real push on it the past two days, and there may come a day when I feel that I want to make a REALLY long scarf and add a 4th skein of yarn to it, but I like the way it looks right now. It's not blocked yet, so some people might argue that it's not completely finished, but it's off the needles, so I will consider it finished for the purposes of the Ravelympics.

I'll endeavor to take a better picture of it after it's all blocked.

Congrats to all the fantastic athletes, organizers, volunteers, staff, EVERYONE for making these 2008 Summer Olympics one for the ages! Watched some awesome sports, and got knitting done to boot. What could be better than that? (^_~)

Colourful FOs

I've been doing some finishing lately. First of all my basketweave scarf knit out of a Sophie's Toes Magic Ball, in all sorts of pretty pastel colourways.



Then the Tulip Baby Cardigan from Dream in Color, knit from a kit purchased at Lettuce Knit last Christmas.



(the sleeveless cardigan-in-progress fit her much better. Maybe I'll have to make her a little Dream in Color vest!)

And there are even more colourful knits on the horizon. When WEBS was having its anniversary sale, I bought a bunch of Reynolds Whiskey for Fiddlehead Mittens.



I also got some bright Plymouth Encore for a Circle of Friends blanket from Last Minute Knitted Gifts.



I'm very glad that there are so many ways for me to indulge my love of all things rainbow. =)

Like a giant colour card

A couple of weeks ago, I needed something relatively mindless to take to knitgroup. I'm sort of tired of knitting socks for the time being, so I dug around and pulled this out.



That's a Sophie's Toes Magic Ball that I bought from someone who was destashing on Ravelry. I'd admired this sock yarn from afar for a while because the colourways are incredibly pretty, but I've never actually bought any because a)I usually miss the updates, b)I can't decide which colourway to get, and c)I have way too much sock yarn and am trying to be good.

The Magic Ball is several different colourways put together for a total of ~15 different "blocks" of colour (there are a couple of repeats). It came with a pattern for a simple scarf, so I cast on and started a little basketweave pattern.



The knitting is indeed very mindless, and it's incredibly fun to see all the different colours emerge. I think a Magic Ball is a marvellous idea, because I get to play with several different gorgeous colourways (yay! pretty colours!) without having to actually knit an entire pair of socks out of each one.

And, just because, here's a photo of the "real" Sophie's toes. =)

Pooling Colors Scarf

THANK YOU all for your very sweet comments regarding the Nothin' But A T Shirt! With your encouragement, I probably will wear it out in public eventually, after I get those last few pesky ends woven in. =)

I've finished the STR Pooling Colors scarf (the first time I typed "pooling" I left out the "l". Then I giggled. I am a 12 year old), it actually knit up incredibly quickly.



I should have thought more about what I was doing when I started the scarf, since one skein of Socks That Rock Lightweight (this is the Count Cluckula colourway) is ~360 yards and resulted in a scarf just over 5 feet long after blocking. Which is actually a perfectly fine length for a scarf, it's just that I like mine to be at least 6 feet. I've worn the scarf out a few times, and the too-short length still bothers me, which makes me suspect that I won't really wear it much, so it may end up being given away as a gift.

This yarn is incredibly springy, in contrast to the Schaefer Anne that I used for my first scarf, and the combination of the yarn + lace pattern probably wasn't a very good match in this case (the pattern just looks a little....weird). Which means that my quest for the second perfect skein of Anne continues. But it was still really cool that I was able to make the pooling work again.

Both a blessing and a curse

You know the common complaint about Kidsilk Haze (aside from the fact that some people find mohair really itchy), that it's nearly impossible to frog due to the sticky grabby mohair? Well, I am extremely grateful for that fact today. See, I was washing (well, Eucalan soaking) my Modern Quilt Wrap before putting it away for the summer, and as I was laying it out on the floor to dry I discovered something.



You can't see it in the photo, but those two pins are marking a dropped stitch. I thought I had caught them all, but apparently one managed to get away from me. I have been wearing this scarf for 3 months, and after all this time it never actually dropped any further, but stayed just where it was. THANK YOU, sticky grabby mohair!!

Of course I will be fixing this ASAP, once the scarf dries. =)

Pooling, the good kind

My Pooling Colors scarf (Rav link) is one of my favourite knits ever. Not only is it knit out of beautiful yarn (Schaefer Anne) in my favourite rainbow colours, the construction is ever-so-clever in the way it takes advantage of the way the yarn is dyed.

I have to admit that every time I see some Anne in a LYS, I dig through it all looking for another "perfect" skein with which to make another one of these scarves. I haven't found one yet. I've seen a lot of pretty skeins online, but I know that a LOT of people had trouble with the pattern due to the yarn not being dyed quite right for the scarf to work so I wasn't about to take any chances. The other day I was exercising my new ball winder (yay!) and winding some sock yarn, including the skein of Socks That Rock (Count Cluckula -- I love the name, so silly!) that I bought in Toronto over Christmas. I put the yarn on the swift and realized something:



This is a stitched together and heavily edited and resized image of the yarn laid out. See how the colours stack on top of each other? This is just what you want for Pooling Colors. I'm a bit socked-out right now, so I figured I'd cast on for the scarf and see if I could make it work. A few false starts later, I managed to get it to pool!



There's a huge garter stitch selvedge at either side (I had to add 1 extra stitch at either side to make the pooling work) that I'm not a huge fan of, but it can't really be helped (unless I wanted to find another stitch pattern, of course. Which I don't. Because I'm very lazy). I think the colours in this skein are really interesting, it's not my standard "oooh, pretty rainbow!" but I think this pattern is guaranteed to show this yarn off well, versus socks which may or may not pool/flash (and I know STR has a tendency to do that).

Since the last photo was taken I've actually made significant progress with this, and it should be finished relatively soon. I am a little worried that the scarf won't be long enough, but it will have to be blocked out first.

Where the *#$@!%^& is it?!!!!

Okay. I have a problem. I'm losing things - my mind probably among them. You know those socks I was knitting for my brother? I can't find them anywhere in my house. That means I've lost 1 skein of beautiful Dream in Colour, some rather nice size 4 circulars, and the cute little bag that held said yarn and needles. On top of that, I've lost the pattern for the below scarf.

I'm on ball 2 of the organic cotton for that, and can figure out the pattern just by looking at the scarf, so could probably write it out again if I really wanted to (which I don't). But STILL! How come I'm losing everything?!! Grr...

So, in other news, I'm trying to figure out what to do with this

This is what I've knit of the back of the Dollar and Half Cardigan. I'm realizing that I hate seaming so much that I've been putting off this sweater for a long, long time now. I was thinking of going through the pattern and trying to re-write it so that it's knit from the top down, kinda like the way Tulip is knit. But that also seems very daunting considering the amount of pattern work on the sweater, and the fact that I've never modified a pattern as majorly as this, and for it to be a sweater? Kinda intimidating. I have a nice pattern for a top-down raglan v-neck pullover that I wanted to make, so I'm wondering if I should just frog this back and just make that instead. The debate continues in my head, so feel free to try and convince me one way or another. I'm very mold-able right now.

Modern Quilt Wrap

Yay, the Modern Quilt Wrap is finished! My lord, was that ever a long and tedious knit. Did you know that each large square took between 1-2 quarters of NFL football to knit? Something like that anyway, I never really timed it exactly (well, if each one takes 1-1.5 hours, and a typical game is maybe 3 hours, that sort of works out). Anyway, it took a long time!





This is the fiddliest yarn I've ever knit with. I can't even tell you how many times I discovered dropped stitches WAY after the fact. It's a good thing that the mohair has so much of a halo that my lame attempts to catch the dropped stitches with extra yarn aren't noticeable at all. I can definitely say that it'll be a little while before I work with Kidsilk Haze again (although I've wanted this Trinket scarf forever). If I ever make noises about wanting to knit an entire sweater with it, smack some sense into me, ok? =)

Now that it's done, I guess the next thing to do is to wear it to death (after I block it, perhaps. It should probably be blocked), to make all the effort worth it! I still love the pretty colours.



(Just a complainy aside: why can't I ever take decent pictures? Do I need something more than a basic point-and-shoot to be able to do that? Maybe I need to learn how to use Photoshop)

Very Predictable

Ever since I learned how to knit, I've knit my dad winter accessories for Christmas. Usually a scarf, sometimes with an accompanying hat. And this year is no different.



This is a modified Irish Hiking Scarf (2 cables instead of 3), knit out of some pretty brown Jaeger Extra Fine Merino Chunky, which has been sadly discontinued. I was originally planning to knit both a scarf and a hat, but I miscalculated when I bought the yarn (and since it's discontinued, it's not like I could easily find more) so he's just getting a slightly longer scarf. Ah well.

Maybe next year I can come up with something different. One can only have so many brown/gray/black scarves, right? =)

Main Street Fair Isle!

The Main Street Fair Isle is done! Hooray! Cue the trumpets and release the confetti!

This sweater, while not a difficult knit at all, was a relative pain in the ass. I've documented the gauge issues with the sleeve here and then with the body here and here, and then I was worried that the fair isle part would come out too tight. The last time I blogged about this sweater I hadn't knit the neckline yet, it was to be a relatively painless K1P1 rib, no problem right? I originally knit the neckline as directed using the US8s that I used for the body, I figured that since I had done a whole bunch of decreasing just after the colourwork that the neckline probably wouldn't be too loose.

WRONG. In actuality it turned out all floppy and faintly resembled a pathetic turtleneck, totally unacceptable (sorry, no photo!). So it was ripped and reknit on US6 needles by my mom, who knits way tighter than I do and probably gave herself hand cramps trying to be as tight as possible. Several attempts were made at a tubular K1P1 bindoff but they all turned out horribly due to the soft and yielding nature of the yarn (mostly alpaca). So we had to resort to a regular bindoff which my mom has previously characterized in the past as being ugly.

I think it looks ok.



Overall, this sweater required a lot of reknitting. But the final result fits! And the recipient is happy!



Of course, not one to waste yarn, she promptly cast on for a ribbed scarf to use up all the leftovers:



I should have taken a photo of all the scary ends that had to be woven in.

This sweater was the 4th sweater project that I've embarked on, the 3rd sweater that I've actually finished, and probably the only one that will get any regular wear (and not by me!). Maybe I'm getting a bit better at this whole sweater thing, I've certainly been learning about how different sorts of yarns translate into actual knitted garments (I haven't always made the best choices), and it's gratifying to look at the final product and think "hey, I made this whole thing!", but I still don't think I'm really into knitting sweaters. Then again, a girl can only have so many scarves, and I'm so terribly vanilla with all my sock knitting (oooh, more stockinette, how exciting!), and I've grown to hate buying sweaters in stores because they're all so expensive (ha! irony) and most of them don't fit properly anyway....so maybe there's something to be said about this knitting-sweaters-to-fit-one's-size-and-shape thing. If only I could cultivate the patience.

Final thoughts:
- The pattern was relatively easy, but I felt that some of the numbers for the size that I knit (the smallest one) could have been better. For example, starting a sleeve with 28 stitches at 4-4.5 stitches/inch in 3x1 ribbing ended up being way too tight, so I increased it to 32 stitches. I also have a feeling that I could have done the fair isle on more stitches since it ended up being a smidge tight, but I don't know how much of that comes from my own tension and how much from the pattern itself.
- The yarn (Valley Yarns Lenox) is very very soft and comfortable, but as a result the sweater doesn't really have much structure. We're ok with this because the sweater was meant to be more for comfort than style, but just something to think about.

Half Finished!

The Modern Quilt Wrap is half-finished. Here are blocks 1-36, taken outside in the snow:



The colours are a bit weird probably because it was too bright outside and I don't know how to play with my camera settings very well (or to mess around with editing software -- I'm so lazy!).

The second half is exactly the same as the first. I must admit that the prospect of knitting the entire pattern again is a bit daunting because of all the colour changes and ends to be woven in, but I really want to wear this scarf this winter so I'd better get cracking!

22.2% complete

Progress on the Modern Quilt Wrap continues. I love this project, but I wish it didn't take so long to finish each square.

Playing with colours

As you may have figured out by now, I am a sucker for pretty colours. I am NOT by any stretch of the imagination an artist or even knowledgeable about colours and how to use them or put them together in a pleasing fashion. I just like to look at them. Someday, I would love to be able to be creative in assembling colours together to create beautiful projects such as this blanket or this quilt or this yarn, but for now I will have to make do with taking what other people have created/designed and appropriating it for my own use.

Which brings me to my next knitting project. The Modern Quilt Wrap from Folk Style. When I saw this pattern featured on Knitting Daily, I fell absolutely head over heels. The colours! The drapeyness! The Cracksilk Haze! Now, I've never actually worked with Kidsilk Haze (except as an accent stripe in my ill-fated first sweater that didn't work out and which we will not speak of now), but it has definitely been on my list-of-things-to-try for a long time, I was just waiting for the "right" project (I've also had my eye on this Trinket scarf for a long time, it's just expensive as a kit and also from across the pond (not that that's stopped me before of course), and also I have trouble deciding on colours). At first I thought "9 skeins? Holy crap that's expensive". But then I thought "Hey wait, I don't have to knit Christmas presents for a certain person (or his mother) this year, why not buy MYSELF yarn instead?" And several weeks and several trips to the LYS and several eBay purchases later, all the required yarn had been assembled.

Behold!





I've replaced a couple of the colours with ones that I already had in the stash (substituting Pearl for Drab and Candy Girl for Blushes), but I don't think it makes too much of a difference to the final pattern except for making it a bit brighter (brighter is better, yay!).

I started knitting the first squares while watching the Red Sox in the ALCS, and it was VERY slow going at first. The yarn is so fine and slippery that it made joining new colours and weaving in ends difficult. And because this project generates so many dangling ends, I decided to weave the yarn in as I went, following this tutorial. Which in turn meant that I had to learn to knit with the yarn in my right hand (I normally knit Continental). Which slowed things down even more.

Because there was a learning curve associated with this project, I had to knit the first 4 squares twice. Here's my second attempt, which is actually sort of square like it should be:



Here are blocks 1-6:





I've actually knit up to block 9 now, but I don't have a photo (perhaps this weekend when I can get outside with it during daylight hours). Here's how long it's taken me to knit all these squares (Pardonnez the super-crap Photoshopping):



3 playoff games, 9 blocks. Each "large" block is taking me around 2 hours to knit. There are 36 of these blocks in the wrap. Do the math! This will take me a while to finish (but I want it now! I want to wear it this winter!), but I think it will definitely be worth it in the end. Provided that the mohair around my neck doesn't drive me absolutely batshit crazy. The bra test resulted in a bit of itching, but nothing too horrible. Tolerable, methinks. =)

I've been knitting a muppet scarf

All knitters know that one of the Very Important things to consider when contemplating moving to a new area is the number and proximity of yarn stores. So when I was in Montana recently, I made a bit of time to drop by a LYS before flying back to Boston. I visited Joseph's Coat, a cute little yarn store in downtown Missoula. They are a small shop, but they have a good selection of yarns as well as rovings and some handpainted yarn. I needed some "souvenir yarn", so I bought 4 ounces of handpainted mohair:



And some Mountain Colors yarn. That's a skein of Bearfoot in the colour "Teal", and some pretty mill ends, I can't even remember what the yarn is, wool of some kind at least. Mountain Colors is based in Corvallis, which is literally 10 minutes away from Hamilton (where I was visiting), but sadly I didn't have enough time to visit their dye workshop:



I made a little muppet-like scarf with the mohair boucle. Held together with some Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride worsted, in the colour periwinkle. The scarf is actually not really my style, but it was a nice mindless knit, which is precisely what I was looking for. =)

Knitting again, slowly

Have I ever been a terrible blogger/knitter! Truth be told I just haven't really had the time to knit in recent months. But I have been chugging along very slowly on some projects, I've been knitting the same pair of socks for the past 4 months, and I'm working on some baby stuff (which should be quick knits, but which seem to be taking forever). I've also done a bit of knitting from stash, here's a Chevron Scarf from Last Minute Knitted Gifts done in some Koigu that I bought at Lettuce Knit last August (click for bigger):



Project specs:
Chevron Scarf from Last Minute Knitted Gifts
Koigu KPPPM P539, 3 skeins
No modifications to the pattern, except I only used one colour instead of alternating two colours.

Next up, some baby stuff!